Abstract
The development of a common language proficiency scale is essential to language teaching, learning, and assessment. While some general English proficiency scales already exist, no such scale is available in an Asian context. China’s Standards of English Language Ability (CSE), as the first scale of its kind, promises to address this deficiency with a clear focus on the student population, grounded in the well-established framework of communicative language ability. As such, it not only illuminates the learning patterns of English language learners at different stages, but also provides a benchmark for curriculum design, student evaluation, and the improvement of educational programs. More importantly, its recent link with such international tests as Aptis and IELTS marks a significant step towards the internationalization of this scale, making student grades on different tests more comparable. The official mapping of CSE to the international examination system opens China’s education further to the rest of the world, and would facilitate student exchanges and deepen educational ties between countries in the future.
Highlights
English as a foreign language (EFL) education has played a prominent role in China’s academic and social life since the country restored its university matriculation examination system in the late 1970s
Among the most influential English language tests in China are the National Matriculation English Test (NMET) for secondary school graduates, the College English Test (CET) series (CET Band 4 and CET Band 6), and the Test for English Majors (TEM) series (TEM Grade 4 and TEM Grade 8), which are all administered on a national basis
As the first evaluation system for English language ability in China, the China’s Standards of English Language Ability (CSE) framework scales language learners and users at an ascending series of nine levels, with each three levels corresponding to one stage
Summary
English as a foreign language (EFL) education has played a prominent role in China’s academic and social life since the country restored its university matriculation examination system in the late 1970s. To promote cooperation and mutual recognition between the English tests in China and those that are better known globally, the British Council, along with China’s Ministry of Education, published the results of their collaborative research on the successful link of IELTS and Aptis to CSE on the 15th of January, 2019 (the British Council, 2019). This was a milestone achievement in China’s English language teaching and assessment, and more importantly, it represents an important step in merging China’s English proficiency scale into the international examination system. The future development of CSE at home and abroad in the global context were discussed
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